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- For homonyms, see Notker
Biography
He was born about 840, at Jonswil, canton of St. Gall (Switzerland), of a distinguished family. He studied with Tuotilo, originator of tropes, at St. Gall's, from Iso and the Irishman Iso, and Moengall, teachers in the monastic school.
He became a monk there and is mentioned as librarian (890), and as master of guests (892-94). He was chiefly active as teacher, and displayed refinement of taste as poet and author. Ekkehard IV, the biographer of the monks of St. Gall, lauds him as "delicate of body but not of mind, stuttering of tongue but not of intellect, pushing boldly forward in things Divine, a vessel of the Holy Spirit without equal in his time". He died in 912. He was beatified in 1512.
Works
He completed Erchanbert's chronicle (816), arranged a martyrology, composed a metrical biography of Saint Gall, and authored other works. The number of works ascribed to him is constantly increasing.
- His Liber hymnorum (between 881 and 887) is an early collection of Sequences, which he called "hymns," mnemonic poems for remembering the series of pitches sung during a melisma in plainchant, especially in the Alleluia. Of its contents, it is unknown how many or which are his. The hymn "Media Vita", was erroneously attributed to him late in the Middle Ages.
- It is practically accepted that he is the "monk of St. Gall" (monachus Sangallensis), author of the legends and anecdotes "Gesta Caroli Magni" (Life of Charlemagne
- Ekkehard IV speaks of fifty sequences he composed. He was formerly considered to have been the inventor of the sequence, a new species of religious lyric, but this is now considered doubtful. He introduced the genre into Germany. It had been the custom to prolong the Alleluia in the Mass before the Gospel, modulating through a skillfully harmonized series of tones. Notker learned how to fit the separate syllables of a Latin text to the tones of this jubilation; this poem was called the sequence (q.v.), formerly called the "jubilation". (The reason for this name is uncertain.) Between 881-887 Notker dedicated a collection of such verses to Bishop Liutward of Vercelli, but it is not known which or how many are his.
Sources
- "Three Monks of St. Gall" by Ekkehard of St. Gall
- Catholic Encyclopedia, accessed on April 25, 2006
- Hoppin, Richard. Medieval Music. New York: Norton, 1978. Pages 155-156.
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"Notker of St Gall"